The Weekend Past

This weekend just flew pass in a blur of activity that has hit its mark and made me tired! My friend, Lisa of ZizzyZaZa Beads came over and we put on our much planned Port Townsend Bead Market. The weather was gorgeous, the crowds good and everyone that stopped by my display was in a great mood! Really, I could not wish for more. Lunch time came and I was able to get away and have hot dogs at the stand across the street. I tell you it was bliss to sit in the sun and eat hotdogs!

Setting up a show and co ordinating all the jobs that go with it is challenging. Plus, when you are a vendor, you are also getting your products ready to sell. Entertaining in the evening is a must, so we filled up on pizza, (Waterfront, of course ) and beer, laughed ourselves silly and let conversation flow wherever it wanted to go.

I am free from shows now until September and I am so looking forward to working in the shop and maybe catching up on a little journaling and painting.

Happy August!

Nothing Much to Say

This is summer in the northwest for me. I am reading this book three pages at a time in the evenings just before I fall asleep. Written several decades ago during a time I actually entertained the idea of going to Alaska with my then boyfriend and working on the pipeline; I am hypnotized by lifestyles and places  contained with in. 

Isn't it an interesting journey, this life of ours. We could have done this and been there but instead we are here after having done that. What would life be like if you or I had made different choices? I left home within two years of graduating high school and have not looked back. Somewhere in my thoughts,  the family I left behind is still exactly in the same places, living the same lives as when I left. No one has died or changed or left. I am comforted by that as I move forward into my own days. I am not hurt anymore by their words or actions and the distance from them with the memories I have both good and bad exist in their own place so far away in miles and years. Still in sometimes late night dreams, I am among them again and moving in a different life. Maybe a life in Alaska in the late 70's. 

Summertime Means ....

...production work for me or at least what I refer to as production work. Over the slower winter months, I design jewelry that I can make and sell in the shop on a regular basis. I can produce it without a whole lot of new technique or thought going into it and fill the displays. This does not mean that the work is substandard. It just means that in 15 minutes here, an hour there, I can make new things for sale. The new thoughts into new work for the next year, comes in the late fall and early winter when I prepare for the upcoming new shows. The work then morphs into shop work. Anyhow, all of this means that while my hands are producing this years' work, my mind is racing ahead to new things, new designs, new configurations, new metals to explore. Painting waits until the fall too when I can have an entire afternoon all languidly stretched out before me ( Jake in school ) to think and play and work. The noise in my life stops then for a precious few hours.

Bead table view. 

New beaded earrings and heart shape pendants. 

Today, on a warm summer afternoon, will also find me in the studio producing " production " work with maybe a hot tub or walk thrown in. What are your plans?

Who I Am

“There comes a time when you have to stand up and say:This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel. Take me, or leave me. Accept me, or walk away! Don't try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don’t fit your idea of who I should be and don’t try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.” ~ Stacey Charter

From a Facebook post earlier today. 

Nearly 10

It is nearly 10 pm on a July Friday night. A very wet and chilly Friday night. Truthfully, I love the rain and the gray. I love a cool, wet summer and the explosion of green that happens when the sun does warm things up a bit. I have been saying that my yard looks like the Amazon jungle and that all the deep, dark holes that Daisy has dug look like Afghanistan. I think in all seriousness, it may be next summer before I can plant anything and not have Daisy dig it up or eat it!

This is my darling Daisy on her way into the studio. She gets a bacon treat and then sleeps on the carpet behind the chair I work in. Really though, she only half sleeps as the minute I make a move to get up, she is ready to go. If I ignore her too long, I hear the familiar noise of a bead rolling around her teeth and in her mouth. That never fails to get my attention. She looks tail-less in  this picture but she is not. Her tail is long and lovely and full.

Finally this evening, look at these lovely and colorful lampworked beads that I intend to make into earrings soon. They will be a lovely addition to my display cases and the earrings will be a perfect summer into fall fashion forward look. I think they kind of look like byzantine openings or windows. They were available in so many delicious colors, it was heard to settle on these! Rich greens and oranges stir an unbridled bead lust in me.

I am hearing the siren call of the studio and the bedroom. One for working one for snoozing. Which will win out as the late evening progresses? The rain makes me think sleep is the stronger call and hearing the sound of the water falling on the roof will make for a good night's sleep.

Peaceful dreams all.

This Weekend Past in Tacoma

I am just now home from the Puget Sound Bead Festival in Tacoma. The car is unpacked, a load of laundry is tumbling in the dryer, my feet are up and I am slowly getting more sleepy by the minute.
The show this weekend was considerably smaller in size and scope than years past but was filled with an excellent variety of bead things and of course, filled with my friends that I only get to see " on the road ". I can't decide whether I should work a show or just flit from person to person and booth to booth and visit, hug and chat! I take many long bathroom breaks and make sure I walk a different way to them -  past friends so I can stop and talk. Bead shows are a little soap opera from time to time and this show was no exception. Intrigue and mystery, rumor and gossip were abundant! I loved it! The stories customers relate to me also make me want to write a book. Someone, somewhere should be recording these tales I hear from people I barely know. I would have to say I like getting to know people and treasure every minute of conversation we have.

I was a terrible picture taker too this weekend! I just was more interested in talking than picturing so I leave you this fine evening with half a full moon hanging in the inky black night outside my sliding glass door with a few pictures from the weekend.

THe view from the top floor of the convention center where the show was being held. See the mountain?
Mount Rainier, that is! 

Another downtown shot featuring the Tacoma Dome and the Washington State history museum. 

A random show picture showing the setting up of Pam's booth.

July 4th

Today there is an abundance of sun and warmth as the fourth opens here in a blast of summertime glory. A light breeze blows across the yard, birds are singing and the lavender plants are wafting their delicate scent past the plastic lawn chairs sitting on the side deck. I have been up since 5:30 working away in the studio, making inventory for the shop; heart pendants, crystal earrings and inexpensive dangly charms. I have always referred to this work as " regular ". It is not the exploration and play of materials I am doing when I do my favorite studio work. I am not really being creative as this is all work I have done in the past and continue to do on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, it is all original work, my work, my designs, my creativity but it is the production part of me and not nearly as rewarding as making something from scratch.

I am on the verge of something in my life and I can not quite figure out what it is. Maybe a change is coming, a journey could be on the horizon, maybe I need romance and mystery and to reinstate in myself a lust for life!

I am meandering this morning and I need to get on with the day not to mention my morning walk so I will leave you with some pictures of jewelry I took in Utah with the beautiful desert rocks as a back drop. Happy - boom boom - fourth!!

Easiest to Post

This is what I called the Judy Jetson flower. Space age-y modern.

This blue violet color was gorgeous!

Pinks make me happy and calm me.

It is easy to post when the house is empty and still. I either have to wait until everyone is asleep or company is gone or I am alone with myself. My mind can then compose, talk, wander and center on writing. Finally, I am going to post a few pictures from my Utah trip. What I enjoyed the most were the flowers. I did not take nearly enough photos but the ones I did take, I imagine will show up in my work for awhile. I was refreshed when I had time to work on my projects and happy when family just loved me for who I am. More to come later!